Nick Clegg drops ‘bigots’ from gay marriage speech

It was set to be a blistering speech, with deputy prime minister Nick Clegg hitting out at the ‘bigots’ who oppose gay marriage.

Nick Clegg reportedly changed his speech (Picture: PA)

But within 90 minutes of releasing a text that the Liberal Democrat leader was due to deliver, the Cabinet Office issued a fresh press release – with the word ‘bigots’ absent.

Mr Clegg had apparently planned to say: ‘Continued trouble in the economy gives the bigots a stick to beat us with, as they demand we “postpone” the equalities agenda.’

But at 4.30pm Tuesday, his office issued a ‘corrected text’ which used the words ‘some people’.

And in a gaffe reminiscent of BBC political satire The Thick Of It, Mr Clegg’s press office sent out a third message five minutes after trying to recall the original email.

It said: ‘With apologies, please see corrected text below. The last version you received was incorrect and sent to you in error. Please only quote from the text below.’

The reception was planned to be a celebration of ‘the government’s historic consultation on equal marriage’, with ‘celebrity campaigners, religious figures, activists, charities and politicians’.

Conservative MP Peter Bone said Mr Clegg was not ‘fit and proper’ to be deputy prime minister if he believed what was in the first draft.

Later, Mr Clegg said he was ‘surprised’ to see media gathered at the reception for the ‘obscure reason that they expect me to use a word about opponents of gay marriage that I had no intention of using, would never use’.

The Coalition for Marriage said: ‘Nick Clegg should confine himself to fixing the broken economy, rather than attacking those people who back the centuries-old definition of marriage.’